All posts tagged ‘Technic’

My first introduction to the Technic brand of Lego bricks was with the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot kit back in 2006. The earlier version of Mindstorms, the Robotics Invention System (RIS), used the typical stud-based brick building. Building stud-based robots posed a real issue when it came to building structurally sound robots — one drop from even a foot or two and an entire RIS robot could easily shatter into pieces. The NXT robot kit improved on the robot building by switching to a mix of stud and studless form of building offered by the Technic brand of bricks. Technic not only let pieces be connected in a more sturdy, durable manner, but the pieces that Lego provided to Technic builders allowed for more complex assemblies and devices. Continue Reading “Boost Your Lego Technic Building Skills” »

I was sharing this site with my brother recently, and he asked me a very poignant question. He wondered what our obsession with Lego was. He lamented that whatever tech or geek related site he goes to, he’s almost guaranteed to find a post related to Lego. Of course, being a huge Lego geek myself I became defensive and warned him not to go sailing anytime soon, lest I build a pirate ship to blast him out of the water.

Aside from my empty threats of pirate revenge, I actually started thinking about this question and decided it could only be answered by building an all black space ship, complete with the little all black explorer mini-figs and blasting around the house with it. That also got me thinking. Why, as a grown man was I playing with Lego toys? What is my obsession with Lego all about? Why do geeks love Legos so much? Stocked up on Mountain Dew and some psychology 101 knowledge, I aim to answer those time tested questions. If you were wondering, the answer is not 42.

Oh, and from what I understand, the company name is LEGO and there is no plural because that is a proper noun and should always be referred to as LEGO. However, the bricks can be called en masse as Legos, as each brick is not the company, but rather the product made by the company. For the sake of this post and not getting further confused, I’m done talking about the company LEGO and will only be talking about the toy Lego. Therefore, I can use the plural Legos at my leisure, where applicable.